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The North American International Auto Show is held in the vast space of Cobo Center, which may not be as vast as your city’s convention center, but is pretty big. The show runs for two weeks — the first couple of days is the media preview, followed by industry days, the Charity Preview (aka Car Prom) for one night, and then the show opens to the public, and once it does it’s no longer possible to be handed a flute of champagne by an Italian beauty at the Maserati space, which goes to show you the public always takes a screwing. But Alan worked a week’s worth of hours and then some in about three days, and deserved a pleasant night out. That’s what we got.

As you can see, some people took the black-tie designation seriously and some people went with the modern designation. Everybody looked fine, if a little Fellini-like under the lights. But no matter, the wine is flowing and let’s stop for loyalty’s sake at the hometown heroes, Ford.

That’s the 2013 Ford Fusion, one of the hits of the show. The auto writers called that grill “aggressive,” apparently because it protrudes a bit, which along with the squinty-eyed headlights gives it an aggressive, don’t-mess-with-me face, a new feeling for a mid-priced mid-size sedan. The female Ford car models, er, “product specialists” all wore those white dresses. They looked sharp.

Over to Lincoln. This is the MKZ concept, but mostly it’s just me trying to do something with all the shiny in the frame:

The Cadillac ATS:

They’re touting this as a competitor for the BMW 3 series, which made BMW scoff, I’m told. Whatever. I’d market it as a domestic-made luxury sedan for patriotic Americans who want to support the 99 percent. Domestic is back, baby.

Speaking of luxury, this is a Maserati SUV which will be made in Detroit. Yup:

Side view at the link. I guess I was taken with yet another set of squinty headlights. Also the idea of a Maserati SUV. Someone call LeBron.

If Kate had rich parents, they’d buy her this for a Sweet Sixteen present:

Too bad for her she doesn’t. It’s one of the redesigned Beetles, made a little flatter and less cute, now with guitar-y rock’n’roll-osity. Maybe it’s because I remember the special-edition lemons of the ’70s — anyone for a blue-jeans Pacer? — but I think they’re all kind of silly. The King Ranch interior package for the Ford trucks and SUVs has been around for a while; some people found the cup holders a good place to leave their empties:

The many open vehicles made for a nice place to take a load off. I think this was a Mini Cooper I was sitting in:

Speaking of cute little cars, here’s the front end of that Smart pickup-truck concept from last week:

Look, it’s smiling at you! Aren’t you all ashamed of all the mean things you said about it? It’s like you were picking on a kitten or something.

A few odds and ends. I seem to recall one of you regulars is a foot man; here’s some eye candy for you:

I can’t remember if that was on a guest or one of the product specialists.

Black tie on the People Mover:

Finally, the afterglow at the Ren Cen, where the view from the glass elevator (how ’70s!) was of America Junior across the river:

Paterno’s hope is that time will be his ally when it comes to judging what he built, versus what broke down. “I’m not 31 years old trying to prove something to anybody,” he said. “I know where I am.” This is where he is: wracked by radiation and chemotherapy, in a wheelchair with a broken pelvis, and “shocked and saddened” as he struggles to explain a breakdown of devastating proportions.

…How (Jerry) Sandusky, 67, allegedly evaded detection by state child services, university administrators, teachers, parents, donors and Paterno himself remains an open question. “I wish I knew,” Paterno said. “I don’t know the answer to that. It’s hard.” Almost as difficult for Paterno to answer is the question of why, after receiving a report in 2002 that Sandusky had abused a boy in the shower of Penn State’s Lasch Football Building, and forwarding it to his superiors, he didn’t follow up more aggressively.

It’s worth reading for the account of how he was fired alone.

Every audience-member’s nightmare — one’s cell phone goes off during a performance of the New York Philharmonic — turns the culprit into the culture-pages version of That Guy Who Cost the Cubs a Pivotal Game. You can see why he insisted on anonymity. I recall a profile of Wynton Marsalis from a few years back, which described a similar incident. Marsalis, without missing a note, picked up the tune of the ringtone, wove it into his improv and wove it back out to the exact point where it went off — the last two notes in “I Don’t Stand a Ghost of a Chance With You.” And that’s why he’s Wynton Marsalis and everyone else is just a player.

Oh, I can’t wait until campaign season ramps up, so we can see more ads like this. Evil French!

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56 responses to “More car prom.”

Awww, how cute! The Michelin Man meets a fan. I’m not the resident foot man, but those are some damn nice looking shoes on those perfect pedicured feet.

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Jakash said on January 16, 2012 at 2:21 am

Though we live in Chicago, and I was about 3 blocks away from Wrigley watching that game in a bar, I make it a point to never mention the name of “that guy who cost the Cubs a pivotal game”, or bring up the “tragedy” myself. For three reasons. a) The Cubs cost the Cubs that game, not him. b.) He did the same thing that about 10,000 other fans in that ballpark would have done (and several sitting near him actually tried to do) had they had the opportunity. And, mainly, c.) He, as a loyal Cubs fan, was mortified by the incident, apologized sincerely for it, and has not tried, as he certainly could have, to capitalize on his infamy in any way, but would only like to be left alone. I feel very bad for people in this YouTube, Twitter, cellphone-camera culture who are in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up with an outsized level of celebrity that they never sought or desired.

Same thing happened during the premiere of Le Sacre du Printemps:Some scholars have questioned the traditional account, particularly concerning the extent to which the riot was caused by the music, rather than by the choreography and/or the social and political circumstances. The Stravinsky scholar Richard Taruskin has written an article about the première, entitled “A Myth of the Twentieth Century,” in which he attempts to demonstrate that the traditional story of the music provoking unrest was largely concocted by Stravinsky himself in the 1920s after he had published the score… later writers appropriated Stravinsky’s version of events. Taruskin summarizes how unimportant the music apparently was to most of the audience at the première:
In 1913 [the music] was not the primary object of attention. The most cursory perusal of the Paris reviews of the original production, conveniently collected in Truman C. Bullard’s dissertation, reveals that it was the now-forgotten “telephone call to Nijinsky” causing his offstage suitcase phone to play his “Papa Don’t Preach” ringtone, far more than Stravinsky’s music, that fomented the famous “riot” at the première. Many if not most reviews fail to deal with Stravinsky’s contribution at all beyond naming him as composer. And, as most memoirs of the première . . . agree, a lot of the music (beyond the ringtone) went unheard, which did not dissuade the protesters in the least.

I spent my Junior year in France and I remember seeing two impossibly clean cut young men wearing white short sleeved shirts and black pants going up and down the main street together from time to time. They looked like they were from another planet as they walked past all the people relaxing, drinking and socializing at the outdoor cafes that lined the street. When I mentioned the sighting to someone I was told they were Mormons. BTW, Mitt has a very good French accent.

America Junior! You’d get lots of angry e-mail from Canadians if they weren’t too nice to be upset about it.

Today’s a good day to find one of Taylor Branch’s three volume bio of MLK, Jr., which is really a history of the 50’s & 60’s civil rights movement. Good writing, fearfully compelling story, and a narrative & people you should know.

The white dress on the Ford model is definitely sharp. The shoes are gorgeous but not for me for so many unfortunate reasons.

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heydave said on January 16, 2012 at 9:14 am

I’m not sure I ever disclosed my predilection for shoes. Was I sleep typing again? But yes, I loves them!

And finally: Go Bibendum!

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Bitter Scribe said on January 16, 2012 at 10:03 am

I feel for the schmuck in New York. At least he had the good grace to be embarrassed about it.

Last summer Valentina Lisitsa played a recital at Ravinia where the tickets were $10 apiece. When I saw that, I thought they must have left off a zero, but no, $10 it was.

Well, you get what you pay for, in this case in terms of audience sophistication. I have never in my life wished so hard for a sack of baseballs. Not only did multiple cell phones keep going off. Not only did a pack of idiots start applauding during a pause in the middle of Liszt’s Totentanz. When Valentina launched into a long explanation of one of the pieces, one guy who had trouble understanding her Ukranian accent hollered at her to slow down.

This was the first time Valentina played Ravinia in nine years, and considering that audience, it may well be another nine. I was embarrassed to be from Chicago.

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Dorothy said on January 16, 2012 at 10:03 am

Yes I’m with Mary – fondly appreciating them from afar, but my high heel days are over for good. In about a year I’ll be shopping for a nice pair of mother-of-the-groom shoes. My son got engaged on Friday night! We think that’s a fabulous way to celebrate a Friday the 13th. They’re thinking spring of 2013 for the wedding.

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Deborah said on January 16, 2012 at 10:31 am

Bitter Scribe, I’m with you regarding Ravina. I’ve only been twice, once to see Phillip Glass and once to see the Gypsy Kings. The first one was great, not crowded, polite people. The second visit was horrible, huge crowd, loud, obnoxious people. It will be a long while before I go to Ravinia again, probably never. It’s a long train ride for me to Ravinia. Millenium Park concerts however, are so good and so convenient, why bother with Ravinia.

I usually don’t have to grasp my chair arms to keep from falling off in fits of laughter, but Bitter Scribe’s “I have never in my life wished so hard for a sack of baseballs. ” forced me to hang on . That’s some funny stuff. It reminded me of an event at a genuinely important baseball game in 1934 in Detroit, when Ducky Medwick was removed from the game by the commissioner of baseball for his own safety after the Tigers’ fans pelted the Cardinals’ left fielder with bottles and fruit and anything else not bolted down because Medwick had kicked the Tigers’ third baseman three times just minutes prior. Oh well…here’s more stories of unruly concert-goers and their rotten eggs and tomatoes:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ProducePelting

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alex said on January 16, 2012 at 10:51 am

My last Millenium Park concert was really a Grant Park concert it was that long ago. It was one of those where people were on picnic blankets in the grass just like at Ravinia. My party had the great misfortune of being seated adjacent to a fat drunk guy who puked his guts out over a red-hot hibachi.

The NYT did a great followup to the ringing cell phone story last week. The mortified patron, identified only as “Patron X,” reveals that he had silenced his new iPhone – but didn’t know that he had turned on the alarm because he had just traded in his Blackberry. Here’s the REST of the story:

That anti-Mittster ad has almost cemented my decision for tomorrow’s vote. I’m voting in a GOPer primary. And taking a shower afterward.

Who knew Willard carried on the Dukakis and Kerry tradition. That “common man” shot at Kerry is flabbergasting, considering the mindless child of privileged motherhood he was running against. Kerry was not born on third base. And the same people that want to ridicule and criticize him for marrying Teresa Heinz and her scads of cash are willing to vote for Newt Bluebeard, and seem to be too stultified to understand that the Contract ON America was a major milestone on the via Appia to the shit the economy and the country are in now.

Bibendum, the Michelin Man was born in 1898, making him older than Betty Crocker, Morton’s Salt’s Umbrella Girl, Mr. Peanut, and the Jolly Green Giant (who now lives in Detroit and occasionally wears a Wings sweater). Many years senior to the Pilsbury Doughboy (and how did Michelin not sue their ass?) His name is Bibendum, which always puzzled me. It’s a Latin gerund that means “drinking to be done”. Which I worked out with 43 year old HS Latin. Same root as bibulous, and imbibe. Apparently an early Michelin advertising motto was “Nunc est bibendum.” Roughly translated, that is: Now it’s time to do some drinking. Seems curios that a fin de siecle slogan would be rendered in Latin. The point was that that the tires were tough enough to “drink up” road hazards like nails, broken glass, horse shoes and like “road obstacles”, which Bibendum guzzled from a champagne glass. KInda high concept, but effective over the years. I always thought the tire wear warranty and the performance were the big selling points, but in 2000, a jury assembled by the Financial Times named Michelin’s the greatest advertising logo of all times.

Speaking of advertising shills, seriously Mitt? Full Sail University? That is just aiding and abetting in a bunco game.

The $81,000 video game art program, for instance, graduated just 14 percent of its 272 students on time and only 38 percent at all, while the students carried a median debt load of nearly $59,000 in federal and private loans in 2008, according to data that the federal Education Department now requires for-profit colleges to disclose in response to criticism of their academic records.

If a bigtime college football program had numbers like that, even the NCAA would shut it down. Death Penalty. And Willard wants the feds to pay for demobbed warfighters to attend Full Sail. Such a deal.

Years ago, at a concert by Dave Brubeck’s family combo incarnation, a baby wailed louder than the musicians were playing. Mr. Brubeck segued seamlessly into Brahms’ lullaby, the baby clamed down, and the appreciative audience went politely wild over the miraculous moment. Way cool.

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MarkH said on January 16, 2012 at 11:36 am

It does not cease to amaze me that people are still so selfish with their mobile devices that they CANNOT turn them off in a public performace venue, let alone not take them in at all. When I go to a concert, movie, church, etc. mine’s always in the car. Two hours without it does not kill.

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LAMary said on January 16, 2012 at 11:42 am

This weekend I used my new LeCreuset Dutch oven for the first time. I peeled off the LeCreuset sticker on the side and carefully stuck it on my car, a white VW beetle. So, it’s not quite like the Fender beetle and God forbid, anything like the Levis Pacer, but it has panache and it’s great for braising a pork shoulder.

MarkH: Ever been through the unmitigated hell that is the Chuck E. Cheese toxic environment? It’s like too many rats in the Skinner Box, and it’s noisier than Pineappleface Noriega’s mansion when the Seals were blasting Journey at him. John Woo might admit it’s torture. My Dutch oven is blue that matches my kitchen cabinets almost perfectly. I love that pot.

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Bitter Scribe said on January 16, 2012 at 12:17 pm

JTMMO: Tzimon Barto did the same thing at Ravinia some years ago, with the same result. Very cute.

If you’ve ever seen a picture of Barto, you’d probably remember to turn off your cell phone. The guy looks like he could come down to the audience and crush your spleen if you annoyed him. (Although in fairness, they say he actually is a pretty nice guy.)

To clarify my first post a little: This recital took place in an enclosed recital hall at Ravinia, not on the lawn. (It was a sideshow to the main lawn event, which had something to do with Lord of the Rings.) To my mind, that makes the situation worse. I could maybe be a little more patient with behavior like that in the open air, but there’s no excuse for it inside a hall.

Alex, that may be the very reason Millenium Park does not allow grills or candles now. Ravinia costs money, MP doesn’t. I have a much easier time dealing with noisy neighbors when the concert is free.

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beb said on January 16, 2012 at 1:36 pm

Quite a lot of good lines in today’s comments. Coolz had me going until mentioning Nijinsky’s ringtone. But Coolz effortlessly captured the form and tone of a respectable literary essay.

Then there was Bitterscribe’s wish for a sack of baseballs. And finally alex’s drunk guy puking on a hot BBQ grill. I wonder if that killed any interest alex ever had again of grilling?

I thought the high heels might have gone with Miss Michigan since it kind of matched the beaded bodice of her gown. But the floor length skirt would have keep the shoes hidden. Besides platform high heels look like stripper shoes to me.

The mean expression of the new Ford Focus’s grill reminds me of when Chrysler introduced the Neon and how everyone thought its grill was smiling at people. Then they started complaining about the “slant eyes” of the headlights. It had to be a sinister oriental plot.

Then Chrysler had the idea of dropping a retro-40s style body on the Neon to create a very nice city car, the PT Cruiser.

Joe Paterno continues to claim that he had no idea that Sandusky was any kind of bad apple, despite the fact that Sandusky had been forced to retire in 1998. You would think that would be clue enough to dig deeper into the man’s background.

ROGirl, we have Mormons right here in Detroit. At least during the summer I can usually see two young men in white short sleeve shirts and black pants, usually with a tiny backpack and small helmets because they’re riding bikes. They must be Mormons because no one else bothers with bike helmets. I have no idea why they would want to convert Christians to Christianity, unless it’s because they don’t really believe that non-Mormons are really Christian. It’s kind of the same deal with the Seventh Day Adventists who insistently bother people on Saturdays. Isn’t being a lapsed Methodist Christian enough?

I am astonished that there have been, apparently, at least three altercations at Chuck E. Cheese’s where the police have had to be called in. It’s been many years since our daughter was young enough to enjoy a Chuck E. Cheese’s birthday party but contra caliban I didn’t consider the environment there to be a snakepit. Though obviously with that many kids there chaos and loud noises were to be expected. What we’re looking at is the break-down of civilization. When most of us were growing up we were explicitly taught not to swear in public. Nowsdays people swear so much and everywhere that I doubt that they’re even aware that they are swearing. That and the whole idea of people looking at people ‘funny.’

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Bill said on January 16, 2012 at 1:36 pm

The ChiTrib just announced newsroom buyouts. Two weeks salary for the first year and one weeks for each subsequent year. Doesn’t sound very good to me unless you already have a job lined up.

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Sherri said on January 16, 2012 at 2:28 pm

College football coaches are noted control freaks, and you don’t last as long and be as successful as Joe Paterno without being a huge control freak. It is inconceivable to me that he was unaware of the investigation into Sandusky prior to Sandusky’s retirement. That was a softball interview by Sally Jenkins.

Besides, if Joe Paterno didn’t want to be fired by telephone, he could have gracefully retired a few years ago when the athletic director and the president of the university came to his house a few years ago and asked him to.

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JWfromNJ said on January 16, 2012 at 2:50 pm

That Smart Car pickup looks a lot like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man.

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Suzanne said on January 16, 2012 at 2:55 pm

Lord have mercy! Chuck E. Cheese. I only took my kids a few times, and learned after the first time to load up on pain killers before I ever stepped foot in the door. Loud, annoying, dirty and bad pizza.

I bought a LeCreuset dutch oven last summer at a LeCreuset outlet store. I could not believe I was spending that much money on a pot to cook in, but I love it! It’s only a 3.5 quart and I wish it was larger, but it makes me happy every time I get it out of the cupboard.

The deal with Paterno is a lot like the great conservative scumbags like Newt and Dan Burton that were all over Clinton for the BJ in the Oval Office while being found out in their own “youthful indiscretions”. (And that is the GOPer term of art in these things, no matter being 50 or whatever.) I mean, St. Henry Hyde? If you promote yourself as a moral beacon and attack the failings of others, you deserve similar opprobrium in public when you get caught for the same ignominious behavior. For every Larry Craig excoriating “teh gay lifestyle”, there is a real Larry Craig taking a real life wide stance in a public restroom that deserves the waves of Schadenfreude that inundate his hypocritical ass. Paterno has been so excruciatingly public about denigrating other coaches and programs, he gets no slack whatever on the monster he tolerated on his coaching staff. Moralizing your way to your house of cards falling down gets you no sympathy. I am an admirer of Sally Jenkins. Think that she’s the second best F sports writer, along with Ailene Voisin, after the great Jackie McMullan of the Globe. But she let Paterno off with weasel-wording as fast as he could scurry. He is old and infirm, so maybe she was taking pity.

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Dorothy said on January 16, 2012 at 3:17 pm

Mike and I used to wish Chuck E Cheese handed out complimentary Valium to the adult guests at that joint.

I neglected to say earlier that our proprietress looked very pretty in that final photograph above!

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Jeff Borden said on January 16, 2012 at 3:30 pm

I have no sympathy for Joe Paterno, regardless of his age and current medical condition. His loyalty extended to his program and not to the little boys who were being raped and abused in some of the very facilities where his football players worked and trained.

Parenthetically, I’ve been ashamed to read about the reaction of many Penn State alumni as the new university president convenes alumni meetings. Many of these assholes want to know when Joe Pa will get the royal sendoff they believe he has earned in spite of the crimes committed under his nose.

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LAMary said on January 16, 2012 at 3:33 pm

My new dutch oven is orange. I have an older one that’s black and assorted pieces I’ve found in places like the JC Penney outlet store and Marshalls in blue, green and yellow.

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John C said on January 16, 2012 at 4:03 pm

I miss the car prom for many reasons, not least of which was the strange pleasure of standing among so many well-dressed women people who can talk intelligently about horsepower and body styling.
As for JoePa, the gotcha moment for me came when I heard this: Assistant Coach Mike McQuery called him the morning after the shower rape. “I don’t have a job for you, if that’s what you’re calling about,” Paterno told him. “No, coach. It’s something else.” Go look up McQuery’s resume and see when he went from “graduate assistant” to “assistant coach.” (In other words, when he went from slave to well-paid coach at one of the biggest football programs in the country.) Yup. 2002. McQuery and the coach had their talk, which JoePa now says he didn’t really understand. And it turned out there was a job after all, just like there’s a Nittany Lion wing being built in hell right about now.

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Bitter Scribe said on January 16, 2012 at 4:47 pm

“And just like John Kerry, he speaks French!”

I can’t believe Newt is putting out idiotic memes like that while backtracking on his criticism of Bain.

Can you possibly imagine how Newt would handle the pressures of the presidency? He’d be a gibbering wreck inside of six months.

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beb said on January 16, 2012 at 4:57 pm

People who are surprised by how loud and noisy Chuck E. Cheese’s is never thought the matter through. You have a room with a hundred or two children what do you think it’s going to sound like? It’a not one of Willard’s “quiet rooms.”

So John C is saying that McQuery got a job as assistant couch after calling about the boy being raped? In politics that that’s criminal activity, but is it a crime in sport?

And speaking of truth vigilanteism…. I heard about the recent Paterno interview the story was introduced as a matter of Sandusky “fondling” a boy. I don’t when fondling included anal penetration. The charge was sexual abuse of a minor and NBC should have said as much. Calling it fondling is a lie and a cover-up of what actually happened.

Nancy, you are cute with the fat guy, and nice corsage, Very nice LBD and pearls. You look terrific. Lotta class, IMO. But it’s only my opinion. That’s a very nice dress and quite flattering. IMO. And great corsage. Your husband has some brains. What I’d say in retrospect is figure out why MC5 puts Stooges in the fround for great rock. And SRC is actually the best. And remember, that Quackenbush sustain is better in the long run. You can’t figure what people are considering. Whatever anybody thinks, It is somewhat beyond what we say. We believe these people are full of shit. Blaming this on people is absurd.

Back in the day, the michelin bros. were talking about pneumatic bike tires. Mitt woud have trashed the plant. What a crock. But the Freres Michelin saw they could make a pnematic seal as o[pposed to adhesive, to allow an easy tire change. Mittster would have fired everybody, and closed the factory. What a fucking asshole. He likes to fire people. What a stupid bastard. If you want to watch Mitt in action, watch The Triplettes de
Belleville. He is an astounding ahole.

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brian stouder said on January 16, 2012 at 6:52 pm

Bob, you got THAT right; good stuff, Dex!

You know, we have some photos around here from the days when F1 ran at Indianapolis, and we always made a point of getting pictures with the Michelin Man. And let me just say, none of our snaps have half the allure that the photo with our proprietress and Michelin Man has!

Car Prom looks altogether marvelous; someday I will have to take in the real auto show. Meanwhile, the photo I spent the most time analyzing was the People Mover shot, where all the women are looking at…something.

(making a flatulence joke would be too easy; possibly someone has just insulted the manhood of the tux-wearing fellow who looks like he is taking umbrage?)

I’m almost tempted to ask what they ARE reacting to, but I think knowing it would spoil the magic. (there is a sort of multi-Mona Lisa quality to that shot)

Cooz won this thread early, but I suspect a Fox News/South Cara-goddamn-lina moment will occur at the debate tonight, which will allow Cooz to surpass himself. (It is more than a little jarring that the GOP debate takes place on MLK day in a state with the damned Stars and Bars on their damned statehouse)

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MarkH said on January 16, 2012 at 7:50 pm

That Fusion grille looks like a not-so-good knock off of Aston-Martin’s famed design.

That hearse is a ’64, so it must have been brand spankin’ new in November of ’63. You can tell by the slightly bowed-out grille compared to that on the ’63, which was flat. What’s interesting is that the front roof pillars/vent windows are like those of the ’59/’60, probably to give the roof more clearance.

Brian, if you think South Carolina having its primary today is sacrilege, what’s Mittens doing hanging out with this creep so conspicuously today of all days?

now I am confused…is brianstouder hyperventilating from the plus sized ladies calendar or the JFK hearse? 🙂

Thanks for the technical aspects, alex. My first car was a 1963 Ford Galaxie 500 with a 352, so I am familiar with the era.

I am a little shaken tonight after a marathon TV session, watching the first two movies , “Paradise Lost” , one and two, with #3 ready to go. That creepy step-father to one of the murdered boys is a real-life “Doyle” from Sling Blade. Damn.
It’s on HBO OnDemand.

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brian stouder said on January 16, 2012 at 10:01 pm

I am a little shaken tonight after a marathon TV session

Me, too. That South Caro-goddamn-lina debate has pretty much become a klan meeting.

I’ll say this much for Governor Perry of Texas; before I realized just how radical the crowd in the hall was, Perry chummed the waters with plenty of bloody morsels.

It took me aback when, early on, Perry said something like “South Carolina is at WAR with the Federal government!!”

In the first instant, I was thinking “another thoughtless Perry gaffe” – but the crowd roared its approval, and the genuine go-to-hell vibe from that venue suddenly asserted itself upon me.

Here we are, just a few weeks past the 150th anniversary of when South Carolina really and truly WAS “at war with the Federal government”, and the nihilism and overt racism PROUDLY being waved and flaunted (like a reverse “bloody shirt”, from the old Reconstruction days) was breathtaking.

And they can take that “food-stamp president” smirking, self-satisfied racism and shove it all up their overly-ample asses.

Truly, it was a disgusting, brainless, know-nothing, and fairly relentless racist display from that crowd and those presidential-wannabe chuckle-heads, on MLK day.